CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

CENTER FOR GENETIC ENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY (CIGB)

An intense investment process as well as of training personnel has been set forth in Cuba that currently allows to dispose of an integrated and complex research-production system in the sphere of Biotechnology applied to different branches of society.

In this context, The Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology of Cuba (CIGB) is an institution of a dinamic development which has enabled itself to reach high levels in research, development, production and the commercialization of biological products obtained through methods of modern biotechnology.

We do research firmly stepping forward in presence of a production culture ruled by the most advanced concepts of quality and its assurance.

All the way... from the idea to the product....
In 1981 a group of leading researchers started the production of human alpha-leukocitary interferon, and just then the already produced interferon was efficiently used in the treatment of dengue and accute hemorragic conjunctivitis outbreaks. Since then, the development of research in the fields of molecular biology, genetic engineering and other side branches has kept an unstoppable rising curve whose main peak was the inauguration of The Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), west of Havana on the 1st of July, 1986, This scientific institution, vanguard of biosciences in the Third World Countries constitutes a great research-productive complex endowed with the lattest and most advanced equipments, capable of an important production and an extraordinary personnel working in the development of new products in all of their phases, from cloning and protein expresion with recombination DNA techniques to the production at industrial scale.

The Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology is structured in a direction board. Some directions are subordinated to the General Direction to develop their work in very specific aspects. It owns the most modern and efficient technology for bioscientific research and carefully studied-beforehand facilities so as to ease the quiet and continuous work flow with a total area of more than 60 000 square meters. The main buildings of the CIGB comprise 43 200 square meters and include climatized laboratories, administrative offices and areas for either general or research services. Other commodities include a theater, with a capacity for 400 people, and a multiple simultaneous translation system in four languages, seminary and conference rooms, language laboratories, a library, a gym, etc.

The use of diverse species of animals is an imperative of medical research, and to fulfill it the CIGB has a very well equipped bioterium for the different species of animals with high technology facilities such as: bareer zones, protected zones or white rooms granting to perform potency assays of recombinant vaccines after WHO requirements as well as the obtention of reliable results in research.

The research related to vegetable species can expand from the laboratory to the 1500 square meters of greenhouses and 2,5 hectares of cultivatable field.

The center owns a production plant continuously growing. Cooperative productions with other institutions progressively increase productive capacities.

The CIGB develops a wide program of training covering from pregraduate to postgraduate studies, including mastering in sciences and doctorates.

The excellent facilities of the institution allow the celebration of national and international events. The CIGB periodically organizes the international scientific event Biotechnology Habana and publishes the bilingual magazine Applied Biotechnology.

As time has gone by, the center has gained in experience and this has enabled that the huge and systematic investigative effort could be reverted into a substantial commercial income for national and international interests and projects itself into the future with increasing success dimension at mid or long terms.

Two decades have passed since the first production of alpha leucocitary interferon in Cuba, and the dreams that were just dreams back then are today a tangible reality.

The initial group of leading researchers have now become in a big family of over a thousand employees, most of them researchers and producers of a great talent and experience.

That is exactly what The Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology has turned out to be: A center of excellency.

Taken from web site of CIGB 15/3/03

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